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Famish vs Hungry - What's the difference?

famish | hungry |

As a verb famish

is (obsolete|transitive) to starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger.

As an adjective hungry is

affected by hunger; desiring of food; having a physical need for food.

famish

English

Verb

(es)
  • (obsolete) To starve (to death); to kill or destroy with hunger.
  • *, I.iv.1:
  • *:Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, Epist. lib.1, epist.12 , famish himself to death […].
  • To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hunger.
  • :*And when all the land of Egypt was famished , the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. -- Gen. xli. 55.
  • :*The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. --Dryden.
  • To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial of anything necessary.
  • :*And famish him of breath, if not of bread. -- Milton.
  • To force or constrain by famine.
  • :*He had famished Paris into a surrender. -- Burke.
  • To die of hunger; to starve.
  • To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish.
  • :*You are all resolved rather to die than to famish ? -- Shakespeare
  • To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.
  • :*The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish . -- Prov. x. 3.
  • References

    *

    hungry

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Affected by hunger; desiring of food; having a physical need for food.
  • My kids go to bed hungry every night because I haven't got any money .
  • (figuratively) Eager, having an avid desire ('appetite') for something.
  • * Charles Kingsley
  • The cruel, hungry foam.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
  • Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.
  • a hungry soil
  • * Shakespeare
  • The hungry beach.

    Synonyms

    * (sense)

    Derived terms

    * * * *